Athena, mascot for the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization, entertains the only lively member of the crowd during a game at Happy Dream Ballpark, in Incheon, on May 5, 2020. The “fan” is a stadium worker, and the spectators have been replaced by cardboard placards. Live audiences were banned from attending as a result of social distancing measures undertaken to fight a pandemic of the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
Photo credit: © Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) threw out the first pitch of its 2020 regular season on Tuesday, May 5. To much of the rest of the world, the Korean league is known mainly as a source of pitching prospects for Major League Baseball (MLB) and as a place for foreign players to work on their swings. But, with most major sporting leagues shut down due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the KBO hoped to introduce fans around the world to their version of the pastime.

The Korean league includes 10 teams: the Kiwoom Heroes, LG Twins, Doosan Bears, SK Wyverns, KT Wiz, NC Dinos, Samsung Lions, Lotte Giants, Kia Tigers, and Hanwha Eagles. The regular season consists of 144 games, with each team playing the others 16 times. The top five teams make the playoffs, with the top-ranked team receiving an automatic berth in the seven-game championship series. Each line-up includes a designated hitter, similar to the rule used in MLB’s American League. Unlike MLB games, KBO games can end in ties.

Major league sports around the world have been largely shut down due to social distancing measures undertaken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19. In the United States, the National Basketball Association became the first major sports organization to suspend play, on March 11. MLB quickly followed, suspending and ultimately cancelling its spring training.

South Korea was able to open its baseball season at only a slight delay, thanks in part to the nation’s aggressive, coordinated response to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the game will look a little different this year. Everyone but the players is required to wear face masks, and fans, barred from the stadium, have been in some places replaced by cardboard placards.

North American fans who want to check out the action will have to become night owls—due to the time difference, live broadcasts begin in the early morning hours in the United States. But those who stay up late, get up early, or record the game may be rewarded with an earful of a uniquely Korean baseball innovation—cheer songs. Unlike MLB players, who often pick the music played as they step to the plate, Korean players have their own unique theme songs, perhaps unsurprising for a country whose thriving pop music industry gave the world such K-pop (Korean pop music) acts as PSY, BTS, and Blackpink.

November 14, 2018

On Monday, November 12, the SK Wyverns defeated the Doosan Bears 5-4 in 13 innings to win the Korean Series, the championship of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), four games to two. KBO is South Korea’s top professional baseball league and features some of the world’s best players. SK’s last KBO title came in 2010. For Doosan, it was their fourth-straight appearance in the Korean Series, and their second-straight defeat (the Bears were KBO champs in 2015 and 2016).

KBO is the top professional baseball league in South Korea. Credit: © Korea Baseball Organization

Baseball has been played in Korea since the early 1900′s, when it was introduced by Christian missionaries from the United States. The sport flourished in Korea during the time of Japanese occupation from 1910 through 1945. (Baseball is also extremely popular in Japan.) After Korea was divided into North and South, baseball continued only in South Korea. KBO began as a six-team league in 1982, and now has 10 teams—5 based in and around Seoul, the South Korean capital, and the others in the cities of Busan, Changwon, Daegu, Daejeon, and Gwangju.

The KBO regular season covers 144 games from March to October. The best team during the season automatically qualifies for the Korean Series championship. The next-best four teams then compete in rounds of playoffs to determine the Korean Series challenger. In 2018, Doosan ran away with the league with a dominating 93-51 record. SK finished second (78-65) and survived a tough playoff series against the fourth-place Nexen Heroes to face Doosan. Nexen had earlier eliminated the third-best regular season team, the Hanwha Eagles.

KBO is similar to Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the talent level is equivalent to the high minor leagues. KBO has a few differences, however. In South Korea, extra innings are limited to 12 during the regular season, and 15 during the postseason (MLB has no innings limit). If the game is still tied at the innings limit, it must then be replayed from the beginning. Several ballplayers from the United States and other countries play in KBO, but no team may have more than three foreign players. KBO is a high-scoring league, and all teams use the designated hitter (meaning pitchers never bat). In MLB, the American League has designated hitters, but pitchers bat in the National League.

KBO teams are named for corporate sponsors rather than their home cities. The Doosan Bears, for example, play at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, but take their name from the Doosan Group, a conglomerate known for its heavy construction equipment. The SK Wyverns, who play near Seoul at SK Happy Dream Park in Incheon, are sponsored by the SK Group, a conglomerate that owns the nation’s largest wireless company, SK Telecom. A wyvern, by the way, is a mythical two-legged dragon commonly seen in British heraldry.

Several KBO players have enjoyed success in MLB. The first notable star was pitcher Chan Ho Park, who debuted for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1994. Other South Korean stars in MLB have included pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim (Arizona Diamondbacks), outfielder Shin-Soo Choo (Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers), and pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu (Dodgers). South Korean baseball teams have enjoyed success in the Olympics and the Little League World Series, as well as in the World Baseball Classic, which serves as professional baseball’s World Cup. A team comprised of South Korean players, Geelong-Korea, is a 2018 addition to the professional Australian Baseball League.

SK’s American manager Trey Hillman, a former minor league infielder who previously managed MLB’s Kansas City Royals, is the first skipper to win titles in both South Korea and in Japan’s top league, Nippon Professional Baseball. Hillman guided the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to the Japan Series title in 2006 before taking the reins at SK in late 2016.